Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose a radically revised assessment strategy to enhance the student learning experience and to better develop the graduate attributes of students in the Built Environment disciplines. Higher Education has changed in recent years. This study was conducted with the view that the design of assessment is of critical importance because it shapes the curriculum, guides the teaching and learning processes and is of strategic importance to the engagement of the student. Students in higher education today focus on the assessment. The paper explores current assessment practices in the modularised and semesterised system in which higher education now operates. The study considers assessment methods and, using feedback on assessment from tutors and students, argues for different assessment approaches, more integration of assessment and more reflective time in order to better contextualise and consolidate learning, thereby better engaging students.The rationale for the study is based on the proposition that the learning experience can be enhanced with a rethinking of our assessment methods. The Built Environment disciplines engage in an assessment régime that concentrates on the module and which does not patently make obvious the whole context of the programme. The hypothesis of the study is that by designing an integrated assessment regime to suit the learning outcomes of the particular level of the programme, as opposed to the discrete module, the learning process will be made to be more valuable and enjoyable. Feedback, both formative and summative, would be better, given more timely and on an individual basis, thus enhancing the learning experience. Some of the approaches used in the Studio format of teaching of the Arts disciplines that give more informal feedback on a continual basis, are explored.